Does the negation with ما or لم convey the same meaning?

First of all, let's answer the above question: Does the negation with ما or لَمْ convey the same meaning?

Well, they both convey almost the same meaning, but there is a (tiny) difference. 

1. The particle ما is followed by a verb in the past tense.
2. The device لَمْ is followed by a verb in the present tense (مَجْزُوم – majzum) – however, it conveys the meaning of the past tense.

But that is not the end of the story.

Let's dig deeper:

In English, we can translate ما with: not at all (if we want to put stress on the negation). In German we could use one of the following translations: gar nicht or überhaupt nicht.

Let us now look at some examples (1 – the verb is in the past tense; 2 – the verb is in the present tense):

One more thing you should watch out for:

If you see لا together with a verb in the past tense, it has a different meaning: It can connote a prayer or wish (قَسَم)! Note that the past tense is used for wishes, curses and prayers irrespective of whether it is preceded by لا or no.

Sounds complicated? Let us see an example:

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